Z

1.
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
–
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion pictures. The Academys corporate management and general policies are overseen by a Board of Governors, the roster of the Academys approximately 6,000 motion picture professionals is a closely guarded secret. While the great majority of its members are based in the United States, the Academy is known around the world for its annual Academy Awards, now officially known as The Oscars. The Academy plans to open the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles in 2017, the notion of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences began with Louis B. He said he wanted to create an organization that would mediate labor disputes without unions and he met with actor Conrad Nagel, director Fred Niblo, and the head of the Association of Motion Picture Producers, Fred Beetsonto to discuss these matters. The idea of this elite club having a banquet was discussed. They also established that membership into the organization would only be open to people involved in one of the five branches of the industry, actors, directors, writers, technicians, and producers. That evening Mayer presented to those guests what he called the International Academy of Motion Picture Arts, everyone in the room that evening became a founder of the Academy. Several organizational meetings were held prior to the first official meeting held on May 6,1927 and their first organizational meeting was held on May 11. At that meeting Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was elected as the first president of the Academy, while Fred Niblo was the first vice-president and that night, the Academy also bestowed its first honorary membership, to Thomas Edison. Initially, the Academy was broken down into five groups, or branches. The original five were, Producers, Actors, Directors, Writers, the initial concerns of the group had to do with labor. However, as went on, the organization moved further away from involvement in labor-management arbitrations and negotiations. By July 1928 the board of directors had approved a list of 12 awards to be presented, during July the voting system for the Awards was established, and the nomination and selection process began. This award of merit for distinctive achievement is what we know now as the Academy Award, the initial location of the organization was 6912 Hollywood Boulevard. In May 1928, the Academy authorized the construction of a state of the art screening room, the screening room was not completed until April 1929. With the publication of Report on Incandescent Illumination in 1928, the Academy began a history of publishing books to assist its members. Another early initiative concerned training Army Signal Corps officers, in 1929 Academy members in a joint venture with the University of Southern California created Americas first film school to further the art and science of moving pictures

2.
Film
–
A film, also called a movie, motion picture, theatrical film or photoplay, is a series of still images which, when shown on a screen, creates the illusion of moving images due to the phi phenomenon. This optical illusion causes the audience to perceive continuous motion between separate objects viewed rapidly in succession, the process of filmmaking is both an art and an industry. The word cinema, short for cinematography, is used to refer to the industry of films. Films were originally recorded onto plastic film through a photochemical process, the adoption of CGI-based special effects led to the use of digital intermediates. Most contemporary films are now fully digital through the process of production, distribution. Films recorded in a form traditionally included an analogous optical soundtrack. It runs along a portion of the film exclusively reserved for it and is not projected, Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures. They reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them, Film is considered to be an important art form, a source of popular entertainment, and a powerful medium for educating—or indoctrinating—citizens. The visual basis of film gives it a power of communication. Some films have become popular worldwide attractions by using dubbing or subtitles to translate the dialog into the language of the viewer, some have criticized the film industrys glorification of violence and its potentially negative treatment of women. The individual images that make up a film are called frames, the perception of motion is due to a psychological effect called phi phenomenon. The name film originates from the fact that film has historically been the medium for recording and displaying motion pictures. Many other terms exist for a motion picture, including picture, picture show, moving picture, photoplay. The most common term in the United States is movie, while in Europe film is preferred. Terms for the field, in general, include the big screen, the screen, the movies, and cinema. In early years, the sheet was sometimes used instead of screen. Preceding film in origin by thousands of years, early plays and dances had elements common to film, scripts, sets, costumes, production, direction, actors, audiences, storyboards, much terminology later used in film theory and criticism apply, such as mise en scène. Owing to the lack of any technology for doing so, the moving images, the magic lantern, probably created by Christiaan Huygens in the 1650s, could be used to project animation, which was achieved by various types of mechanical slides

3.
Academy Awards
–
The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the Academy Award of Merit, which has become commonly known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by AMPAS, the awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now live in more than 200 countries and can be streamed live online. The Academy Awards ceremony is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony and its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music and recording – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 89th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2016, were held on February 26,2017, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, the ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,048 Oscars have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 88th, the first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16,1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel, the cost of guest tickets for that nights ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other participants in the industry of the time. The ceremony ran for 15 minutes, winners were announced to media three months earlier, however, that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11,00 pm on the night of the awards. The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and he had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier, this made him the first Academy Award winner in history. With the fourth ceremony, however, the system changed, for the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27,1957, until then, foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies always end with the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Academy also awards Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, see also § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. The five spokes represent the branches of the Academy, Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers. The model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio El Indio Fernández, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons design. The statuettes presented at the ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze

4.
Robert Altman
–
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director, screenwriter, and film producer. He is consistently ranked as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in American cinema and his style of filmmaking was unique among directors, in that his subjects covered most genres, but with a subversive twist that typically relies on satire and humor to express his personal vision. Altman developed a reputation for being anti-Hollywood and non-conformist in both his themes and directing style, however, actors especially enjoyed working under his direction because he encouraged them to improvise, thereby inspiring their own creativity. He preferred large ensemble casts for his films, and developed a recording technique which produced overlapping dialogue from multiple actors. This produced a natural, more dynamic, and more complex experience for the viewer. He also used highly mobile camera work and zoom lenses to enhance the activity taking place on the screen, critic Pauline Kael, writing about his directing style, said that Altman could make film fireworks out of next to nothing. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized Altmans body of work with an Academy Honorary Award and he never won a competitive Oscar despite five nominations. His films MASH, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, and Nashville have been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Altman is one of the few filmmakers whose films have won the Golden Bear at Berlin, the Golden Lion at Venice, and the Golden Palm at Cannes. Altmans ancestry was German, English and Irish, his grandfather, Frank Altman. Altman had a Catholic upbringing, but he did not continue to follow or practice the religion as an adult, although he has referred to as a sort of Catholic. He was educated at Jesuit schools, including Rockhurst High School and he graduated from Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington, Missouri in 1943. In 1943 Altman joined the United States Army Air Forces at the age of 18, during World War II, Altman flew more than 50 bombing missions as a crewman on a B-24 Liberator with the 307th Bomb Group in Borneo and the Dutch East Indies. Upon his discharge in 1946, Altman moved to California and he worked in publicity for a company that had invented a tattooing machine to identify dogs. He entered filmmaking on a whim, selling a script to RKO for the 1948 picture Bodyguard, Altmans immediate success encouraged him to move to New York City, where he attempted to forge a career as a writer. Having enjoyed little success, in 1949 he returned to Kansas City, in February 2012, an early Calvin film directed by Altman, Modern Football, was found by filmmaker Gary Huggins. Altman directed some 65 industrial films and documentaries before being hired by a businessman in 1956 to write. The film, titled The Delinquents, made for $60,000, was purchased by United Artists for $150,000, while primitive, this teen exploitation film contained the foundations of Altmans later work in its use of casual, naturalistic dialogue

5.
Broncho Billy Anderson
–
Gilbert M. Broncho Billy Anderson was an American actor, writer, film director, and film producer, who is best known as the first star of the Western film genre. Anderson was born Maxwell Henry Aronson in Little Rock, Arkansas and his family was Jewish, his fathers parents having emigrated to the United States from Prussia, and his mothers from the Russian Empire. His family moved to Pine Bluff, Arkansas when he was three years old and he lived in Pine Bluff until he was 8, when he moved with his family to St. Louis, Missouri. When he was 18, he moved to New York City and appeared in vaudeville, in 1903, he met Edwin S. Porter, who hired him as an actor and occasional script collaborator. Anderson played three roles in Porters early motion picture The Great Train Robbery, seeing the film for the first time at a vaudeville theater and being overwhelmed by the audiences reaction, he decided to work in the film industry exclusively. He began to write, direct, and act in his own westerns under the name Gilbert M. Anderson, in 1907 in Chicago, Anderson and George Kirke Spoor founded Essanay Studios, one of the major early movie studios. In 1909, he directed the film with the first known instance of the pie-the-face gag, Anderson acted in over 300 short films. He played a variety of characters, but he gained enormous popularity from a series of 148 silent western shorts and was the first film cowboy star. Spoor stayed in Chicago running the company like a factory, while Anderson traveled the western United States by train with a film crew shooting movies. Writing, acting, and directing most of these movies, Anderson also found time to direct a series of Alkali Ike comedy westerns starring Augustus Carney, in 1916, Anderson sold his ownership in Essanay and retired from acting. He returned to New York City, bought the Longacre Theatre and produced plays and he then made a brief comeback as a producer with a series of shorts with Stan Laurel, including his first work with Oliver Hardy in A Lucky Dog. Conflicts with the studio, Metro, led him to again after 1920. He asked for $900,000, but the outcome of the suit is unknown, Anderson resumed producing movies, as owner of Progressive Pictures, into the 1950s, then retired again. In 1958, he received an Honorary Academy Award as a motion picture pioneer for his contributions to the development of motion pictures as entertainment, at age 85, Anderson came out of retirement for a cameo role in The Bounty Killer. For the last years of his life, he lived at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, Anderson died in 1971 at the age of 90, at a sanitarium in South Pasadena, California. He was survived by his wife, Mollie Louise Anderson, their daughter, Maxine and he was cremated and his ashes placed in a vault at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles. Anderson was honored posthumously in 1998 with his image on a U. S. postage stamp, in 2002, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. For the past nine years, Niles, California, site of the western Essanay Studios, has held an annual Broncho Billy Silent Film Festival, Anderson has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1651 Vine Street in Hollywood

6.
Michelangelo Antonioni
–
Michelangelo Antonioni, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI, was an Italian film director, screenwriter, editor, and short story writer. He produced enigmatic and intricate pieces and rejected action in favor of contemplation, focusing on image and design over character. His films defined a cinema of possibilities and he is one of three directors to have won the Palme dOr, the Golden Lion and the Golden Bear, and the only director to have won these three and the Golden Leopard. Antonioni was born into a family of landowners in Ferrara, Emilia Romagna. He was the son of Elisabetta and Ismaele Antonioni, the director explained to Italian film critic Aldo Tassone, My childhood was a happy one. Was a warm and intelligent woman who had been a laborer in her youth and my father also was a good man. Born into a family, he succeeded in obtaining a comfortable position through evening courses. My parents gave me free rein to do what I wanted, with my brother, curiously enough, our friends were invariably proletarian, and poor. The poor still existed at that time, you recognized them by their clothes, but even in the way they wore their clothes, there was a fantasy, a frankness that made me prefer them to boys of bourgeois families. I always had sympathy for women of working-class families, even later when I attended university, they were more authentic. While still a child, Antonioni was fond of drawing and music, a precocious violinist, he gave his first concert at the age of nine. Although he abandoned the violin with the discovery of cinema in his teens, I have never drawn, even as a child, either puppets or silhouettes but rather facades of houses and gates. One of my favorite games consisted of organizing towns, ignorant in architecture, I constructed buildings and streets crammed with little figures. These childhood happenings - I was eleven years old - were like little films, upon graduation from the University of Bologna with a degree in economics, he started writing for the local Ferrara newspaper Il Corriere Padano in 1935 as a film journalist. In 1940, Antonioni moved to Rome, where he worked for Cinema, however, Antonioni was fired a few months afterward. Later that year he enrolled at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia to study film technique and he was drafted into the army afterwards. During the war Antonioni survived being condemned to death for his membership in the resistance, in 1942, Antonioni co-wrote A Pilot Returns with Roberto Rossellini and worked as assistant director on Enrico Fulchignonis I due Foscari. In 1943, he travelled to France to assist Marcel Carné on Les visiteurs du soir and then began a series of films with Gente del Po

7.
Fred Astaire
–
Fred Astaire was an American dancer, singer, actor, choreographer and television presenter. His stage and subsequent film and television careers spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films and several television specials, Astaire was ranked by the American Film Institute as the fifth greatest male star of Classic Hollywood cinema in 100 Years. Gene Kelly, another star in filmed dance, said that the history of dance on film begins with Astaire, later, he asserted that Astaire was the only one of todays dancers who will be remembered. Astaire was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of Johanna Ann, Astaires mother was born in the United States to Lutheran German immigrants from East Prussia and Alsace. Astaires father was born in Linz, Austria, to Jewish parents who had converted to Roman Catholicism, Astaires mother dreamed of escaping Omaha by virtue of her childrens talents, after Astaires sister, Adele Astaire, early on revealed herself to be an instinctive dancer and singer. She planned a brother and sister act, which was common in vaudeville at the time, although Astaire refused dance lessons at first, he easily mimicked his older sisters steps and took up piano, accordion, and clarinet. Despite Adele and Freds teasing rivalry, they acknowledged their individual strengths, his durability. Fred and Adeles mother suggested they change their name to Astaire, Family legend attributes the name to an uncle surnamed LAstaire. They were taught dance, speaking, and singing in preparation for developing an act and their first act was called Juvenile Artists Presenting an Electric Musical Toe-Dancing Novelty. Fred wore a top hat and tails in the first half, in an interview, Astaires daughter, Ava Astaire McKenzie, observed that they often put Fred in a top hat to make him look taller. The goofy act debuted in Keyport, New Jersey, in a tryout theater, the local paper wrote, the Astaires are the greatest child act in vaudeville. As a result of their fathers salesmanship, Fred and Adele rapidly landed a contract and played the famed Orpheum Circuit in the Midwest, Western. Soon Adele grew to at least three inches taller than Fred and the pair began to look incongruous. The family decided to take a break from show business to let time take its course and to avoid trouble from the Gerry Society. In 1912, Fred became an Episcopalian, the career of the Astaire siblings resumed with mixed fortunes, though with increasing skill and polish, as they began to incorporate tap dancing into their routines. Astaires dancing was inspired by Bill Bojangles Robinson and John Bubbles Sublett, from vaudeville dancer Aurelio Coccia, they learned the tango, waltz, and other ballroom dances popularized by Vernon and Irene Castle. Some sources state that the Astaire siblings appeared in a 1915 film titled Fanchon, the Cricket, starring Mary Pickford, by age 14, Fred had taken on the musical responsibilities for their act. He first met George Gershwin, who was working as a song plugger for Jerome H. Remicks music publishing company, Fred had already been hunting for new music and dance ideas

8.
Lauren Bacall
–
Lauren Bacall was an American actress and singer known for her distinctive voice and sultry looks. Bacall began her career as a model, before making her debut as a lady with Humphrey Bogart in the film To Have and Have Not in 1944. She co-starred with John Wayne in his film, The Shootist. Bacall also worked on Broadway in musicals, earning Tony Awards for Applause and her performance in The Mirror Has Two Faces earned her a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination. A month before her 90th birthday, Bacall died in New York City after a stroke, soon after her birth, Bacalls family moved to Brooklyns Ocean Parkway. Through her father, she was a relative of Shimon Peres, Peres has stated, In 1952 or 1953 I came to New York. Lauren Bacall called me, said that she wanted to meet and we sat and talked about where our families came from, and discovered that we were from the same family. But Im not exactly sure what our relation is and it was she who later said that she was my cousin, I didnt say that. Her parents divorced when she was five, she took the Romanian form of her mothers last name. She no longer saw her father and formed a close bond with her mother. In 1941 Bacall took lessons at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and she made her acting debut on Broadway in 1942, at age 17, as a walk-on in Johnny 2 X4. By then, she lived with her mother on Bank Street, Greenwich Village, as a teenage fashion model she appeared on the cover of Harpers Bazaar, as well as in magazines such as Vogue. She was noted for her grace, tawny blonde hair. Though Diana Vreeland is often credited with discovering Bacall for Harpers Bazaar and he had first met Bacall at Tonys, a club in the East 50s. De Gunzburg suggested that Bacall stop by his Bazaar office the next day and he then turned over his find to Vreeland, who arranged for Louise Dahl-Wolfe to shoot Bacall in Kodachrome for the March 1943 cover. The Harpers Bazaar cover caught the attention of Hollywood producer and director Howard Hawks wife Slim, Hawks asked his secretary to find out more about her, but the secretary misunderstood and sent Bacall a ticket to come to Hollywood for the audition. After meeting Bacall in Hollywood, Hawks immediately signed her to a contract with a weekly salary of $100. He changed her first name to Lauren, and she chose Bacall as her screen surname, Slim Hawks also took Bacall under her wing, dressing Bacall stylishly and guiding her in matters of elegance, manners and taste

9.
James Baskett
–
James Baskett was an American actor known for his portrayal of Uncle Remus, singing the song Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah in the 1946 Disney feature film Song of the South. In recognition of his portrayal of the famous black storyteller he was given an Honorary Academy Award. As Jimmie Baskette, he appeared on Broadway with Louis Armstrong in the musical revue Hot Chocolates in 1929. Mr. Baskett also acted in several films made in the New York area. He went to Los Angeles, California and had a role in Straight to Heaven, starring Nina Mae McKinney. He was invited by Freeman Gosden to join the cast of the Amos n Andy radio show as lawyer Gabby Gibson, whom he portrayed from 1944 to 1948. In 1945, he auditioned for a bit part voicing one of the animals in the new Disney feature film Song of the South, walt Disney was impressed with Basketts talent and hired him on the spot for the lead role of Uncle Remus. Baskett was also given the role of Brer Fox, one of the films animated antagonists. This was one of the first Hollywood portrayals of an actor as a non-comic character in a leading role in a film meant for general audiences. Baskett was not allowed to attend the premiere in Atlanta. On March 20,1948, Baskett received an Honorary Academy Award for his performance as Uncle Remus and he was the first African-American male actor to win an Academy Award. Baskett had been in poor health around 1946 during the filming of Song Of the South due to diabetes and his health continued to decline, and he was often unable to attend the Amos and Andy show he was in. On July 9,1948 during the summer hiatus, Baskett died of heart failure resulting from the diabetes at age 44 and was survived by his wife. He is buried at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis, list of African American firsts James Baskett at the Internet Movie Database James Baskett at Find a Grave

10.
Ralph Bellamy
–
Ralph Rexford Bellamy was an American actor whose career spanned 62 years on stage, screen and television. During his career, he played leading roles as well as supporting roles, garnering acclaim and awards, ralph Rexford Bellamy was born in Chicago, Illinois. He was the son of Lilla Louise, a native of Canada and he ran away from home when he was 15 and managed to get into a road show. He toured with road shows before landing in New York City. He began acting on stage there and by 1927 owned his own theater company, in 1931, he made his film debut and worked constantly throughout the decade both as a lead and as a capable supporting actor. He co-starred in five films with Fay Wray and his film career began with The Secret Six starring Wallace Beery and featuring Jean Harlow and Clark Gable. By the end of 1933, he had appeared in 22 movies, most notably Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. He played in seven films in 1934 alone, including Woman in the Dark, based on a Dashiell Hammett story, in which Bellamy played the lead. He portrayed detective Ellery Queen in a few films during the 1940s, but as his career did not progress, he returned to the stage. Bellamy appeared in movies during this time, including Dance, Girl, Dance with Maureen OHara and Lucille Ball. The lead role was taken by Frank Lovejoy in 1956, who starred in NBCs Meet McGraw detective series. Bellamy appeared on television in numerous roles over the following years and he was a regular panelist on the CBS television game show To Tell the Truth during its initial run. Bellamy starred as Willard Mitchell, along with Patricia Breslin and Paul Fix, about this same time, he also appeared on the NBC anthology series, The Barbara Stanwyck Show. In December 1961, he portrayed the part of Judge Quince in the episode Judgement at Hondo Seco on CBSs Rawhide, during the 1963–1964 television season, Bellamy co-starred with Jack Ging in the NBC medical drama The Eleventh Hour, in the role of a psychiatrist in private practice. Wendell Corey had appeared in the first season of the series, Bellamy appeared on Broadway in one of his most famous roles, as Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Sunrise at Campobello. He later starred in the 1960 film version, in the summer of 1961, Bellamy hosted nine original episodes of a CBS Western anthology series called Frontier Justice, a Dick Powell Four Star Television production. In 1950 Bellamy became a member of The Lambs, a club located in New York. Highly regarded within the industry, Bellamy served as a four-term President of Actors Equity from 1952–1964, among many roles in numerous shows, sometimes as a series regular, Bellamy portrayed Adlai Stevenson in the 1974 TV-movie The Missiles of October, a treatment of the Cuban Missile Crisis

11.
Edgar Bergen
–
Edgar John Bergen was an American actor, comedian and radio performer, best known for his proficiency in ventriloquism and his characters Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd. He is also the father of actress Candice Bergen, Bergen was born in Chicago, Illinois, one of five children and the youngest of two sons of Swedish immigrants Nilla Svensdotter and Johan Henriksson Berggren. He lived on a farm near Decatur, Michigan until he was 4 when his family returned to Sweden where he learned the language and he taught himself ventriloquism from a pamphlet called The Wizards Manual when he was 11 after his family returned to Chicago. He attended Lake View High School, after his father died when he was just 16, he went out to work as an apprentice accountant, a furnace stoke, a player piano operator, and a projectionist in a silent-movie house. The famous ventriloquist Harry Lester was so impressed by Edgar that he gave the teenager almost daily lessons for three months in the fundamentals of ventriloquism. In the fall of 1919, Edgar paid Chicago woodcarver Theodore Mack $36 to sculpt a likeness of a rascally red-headed Irish newspaperboy he knew, the head went on a dummy named Charlie McCarthy, which became Bergens lifelong sidekick. He had created the body himself, using a length of broomstick for the backbone. For college he attended Northwestern University where he was enrolled in the program to please his mother. He switched to Speech & Drama but never completed his degree and he gave his first public performance at Waveland Avenue Congregational Church located on the northeast corner of Waveland and Janssen. He lived across the street from the church and he cut out an R and a G from his family name and went from Berggren to Bergen on the showbills. Between June 1922 and August 1925, he performed every summer on the professional Chautauqua circuit, Bergen had an interest in aviation, becoming a private pilot. His first performances were in vaudeville, at which point he changed his last name to the easier-to-pronounce Bergen. He worked in one-reel movie shorts, but his success was on the radio. He and Charlie were seen at a New York party by Elsa Maxwell for Noël Coward and it was there that two producers saw Bergen and Charlie perform. They then recommended them for a guest appearance on Rudy Vallées program and their initial appearance was so successful that the following year they were given regular cast rolls as part of The Chase and Sanborn Hour. Under various sponsors, they were on the air from May 9,1937 to July 1,1956, the popularity of a ventriloquist on radio, when one could see neither the dummies nor his skill, surprised and puzzled many critics, then and now. Even knowing that Bergen provided the voice, listeners perceived Charlie as a genuine person, thus, in 1947, Sam Berman caricatured Bergen and McCarthy for the networks glossy promotional book, NBC Parade of Stars, As Heard Over Your Favorite NBC Station. Bergens skill as an entertainer, especially his characterization of Charlie, Bergens success on radio was paralleled in the United Kingdom by Peter Brough and his dummy Archie Andrews

12.
Charles Boyer
–
Charles Boyer was a French actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage and his memorable performances were among the eras most highly praised, in romantic dramas such as The Garden of Allah, Algiers, and Love Affair, as well as the mystery-thriller Gaslight. He received four Academy Award nominations for Best Actor, Boyer was born in Figeac, Lot, France, the son of Augustine Louise Durand and Maurice Boyer, a merchant. Boyer was a shy, small-town boy who discovered the movies, Boyer performed comic sketches for soldiers while working as a hospital orderly during World War I. He began studies briefly at the Sorbonne, and was waiting for a chance to study acting at the Paris Conservatory and he went to the capital city to finish his education, but spent most of his time pursuing a theatrical career. In 1920, his quick memory won him a chance to replace the man in a stage production. In the 1920s, he not only played a suave and sophisticated ladies man on the stage, MGM signed Boyer to a contract, and he loved life in the United States, but nothing much came of his first American stay from 1929 to 1931. At first, he performed film roles only for the money, however, with the coming of sound, his deep voice made him a romantic star. His first Hollywood break came with a small role in Jean Harlows Red-Headed Woman. Subsequently, he co-starred with Claudette Colbert in the psychiatric drama Private Worlds, until the early 1930s, Boyer mainly continued making French films, and Mayerling co-starring Danielle Darrieux in 1936 made him an international star. This was followed by Orage, opposite Michèle Morgan, the offscreen Boyer was bookish and private, far removed from the Hollywood high life. In 1938, he landed his famous role as Pepe le Moko, the thief on the run in Algiers, although in the movie Boyer never said to costar Hedy Lamarr Come with me to the Casbah, this line was in the movie trailer. The line would stick with him, thanks to generations of impressionists, Boyers vocal style was also parodied on the Tom and Jerry cartoons, most notably when Tom was trying to woo a female cat. In contrast to his glamorous image, Boyer began losing his hair early, had a pronounced paunch, when Bette Davis first saw him on the set of All This, and Heaven Too, she did not recognize him and tried to have him removed. In 1943, he was awarded an Honorary Oscar Certificate for progressive cultural achievement in establishing the French Research Foundation in Los Angeles as a source of reference. He is particularly known for Gaslight in which he played a thief/murderer who tries to convince his newlywed wife that she is going insane. In 1947, he was the voice of Capt. Daniel Gregg in the Lux Radio Theaters presentation of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, in 1948, he was made a chevalier of the French Légion dhonneur. When another film with Bergman, Arch of Triumph, failed at the box office, in 1956, Boyer was a guest star on I Love Lucy

13.
Charles Burnett (director)
–
Charles Burnett is an African-American film director, film producer, writer, editor, actor, photographer, and cinematographer. His most popular films include Killer of Sheep, My Brothers Wedding, To Sleep with Anger, The Glass Shield and he has been involved in other types of motion pictures including shorts, documentaries, and a TV series. Charles Burnett was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi on April 13,1944 to a nurses aide, according to a DNA analysis, he descended, mainly, of people from Sierra Leone. In 1947, Charless family moved to Watts, a black neighborhood in South Los Angeles. Although Burnett was interested in expressing himself through art from a young age, the neighborhood of Watts had a significant effect on the life and the work of Charles Burnett. Burnett has said that the neighborhood had a strong Southern influence due to the number of Southerners living in the area. The Watts community strongly influences the subject matter of his movies and his film Killer of Sheep was set in the Watts neighborhood. Charles Burnett first enrolled at Los Angeles City College to study electronics in preparation for a career as an electrician. Dissatisfied, he took a class and decided that his earlier artistic ambitions needed to be explored and tested. He went on to earn a BA in writing and languages at the University of California, Burnett continued his education by enrolling in the UCLA film school for a Master of Fine Arts degree in theater arts and film. His experiences at UCLA had a influence on his work. Some fellow students include filmmaking greats like Larry Clark, Julie Dash, Haile Gerima and his professors Elyseo Taylor, who created the department of Ethno-Communications, and Basil Wright, a British documentarian, also had a significant influence on Burnetts films. The films produced by group of African and African American filmmakers had a high relevance to the politics and culture of the 1960s. Their film characters shifted from the class to the working class to highlight the tension caused by class conflict within African American families. The independent writers and directors strayed away from the mainstream and won approval for remaining faithful to the true African American history. Another accomplishment of the Black Independent Movement and Charles Burnett was the creation of the Third World Film Club, the club joined with other organizations in a successful campaign to break the American boycott banning all forms of cultural exchange with Cuba. Many critics have compared the films of the Black Independent Movement to Italian neorealist films of the 1940s, Third World Cinema films of the late 1960s and 1970s, and the 1990s Iranian New Wave. Charles Burnetts earliest works include his UCLA student films made with friends, Several Friends and The Horse, in which he was the director, producer, Charles Burnetts first full-length feature film Killer of Sheep was written for his UCLA masters thesis

14.
Eddie Cantor
–
Eddie Cantor, born Edward Israel Iskowitz, was an American illustrated song performer, comedian, dancer, singer, actor, and songwriter. Some of his hits include Makin Whoopee, Ida, Yes and we Have No Bananas, If You Knew Susie, Ma. Hes Makin Eyes at Me, Baby, Margie, and How Ya Gonna Keep em Down on the Farm and he also wrote a few songs, including Merrily We Roll Along, the Merrie Melodies Warner Bros. cartoon theme. His eye-rolling song-and-dance routines eventually led to his nickname, Banjo Eyes, in 1933, artist Frederick J. Garner caricatured Cantor with large round eyes resembling the drum-like pot of a banjo. Cantors eyes became his trademark, often exaggerated in illustrations, and his charity and humanitarian work was extensive, and he is credited with coining the phrase, and helping to develop the March of Dimes. He was awarded an honorary Academy Award in 1956 for distinguished service to the film industry, Cantor was born in New York City, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, Meta and Mechel Itzkowitz. The precise date of his birth is unknown and his mother died in childbirth one year after his birth, and his father died of pneumonia when Eddie was two, leaving him to be raised by his grandmother, Esther Kantrowitz. As a child, he attended Surprise Lake Camp, a misunderstanding when his grandmother signed him into school gave him her last name of Kantrowitz. Esther died on January 29,1917, two days before Cantor signed a contract with Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. to appear in his Follies. Cantor had adopted the first name Eddie when he met his future wife Ida Tobias in 1913, Cantor and Ida were married in 1914. They had five daughters, Marjorie, Natalie, Edna, Marilyn, and Janet, several radio historians, including Gerald Nachman, have said that this gag did not always sit well with the girls. Natalies second husband was the actor Robert Clary and Janet married the actor Roberto Gari, Cantor was the second president of the Screen Actors Guild, serving from 1933 to 1935. He invented the title The March of Dimes for the campaigns of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. It was a play on the The March of Time newsreels popular at the time and he began the first campaign on his radio show in January 1938, asking listeners to mail a dime to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. At that time, Roosevelt was the most notable American victim of polio, other entertainers joined in the appeal via their own shows, and the White House mail room was deluged with 2,680,000 dimes—a large sum at the time. Following the death of their daughter Marjorie at the age of 44, Ida died in August 1962 of cardiac insufficiency, and Eddie died on October 10,1964, in Beverly Hills, California, after suffering his second heart attack at age 72. He is interred in Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, by his early teens, Cantor began winning talent contests at local theaters and started appearing on stage. One of his earliest paying jobs was doubling as a waiter and performer, singing for tips at Carey Walshs Coney Island saloon and he made his first public appearance in Vaudeville in 1907 at New Yorks Clinton Music Hall

15.
Yakima Canutt
–
Yakima Canutt, also known as Yak Canutt, was an American champion rodeo rider, actor, stuntman and action director. Born Enos Edward Canutt in the Snake River Hills, near Colfax, Washington, he was one of five children of John Lemuel Canutt, a rancher, and Nettie Ellen Stevens. He grew up in eastern Washington on a ranch near Penawawa Creek, founded by his grandfather and operated by his father and his formal education was limited to elementary school in Green Lake, then a suburb of Seattle. He gained the education for his lifes work on the ranch, where he learned to hunt, trap, shoot. He broke a wild bronco when he was 11, as a 6-foot-tall sixteen-year-old, he started bronc riding at the Whitman County Fair in Colfax in 1912, and at 17 he won the title of Worlds Best Bronco Buster. Canutt started rodeo riding professionally and gained a reputation as a rider, bulldogger. It was at the 1914 Pendleton Round-Up, Pendleton, Oregon he got the nickname Yakima when a newspaper caption misidentified him, Yakima Canutt may be the most famous person NOT from Yakima, Washington says Elizabeth Gibson, author of Yakima, Washington. Winning second place at the 1915 Pendleton Round-Up brought attention from show promoters, I started in major rodeos in 1914, and went through to 1923. There was quite a crop of us traveling together, and we would have special railroad cars and cars for the horses, wed play anywhere from three, six, eight ten-day shows. Bronc riding and bulldogging were my specialties, but I did some roping, during the 1916 season, he became interested in divorcee Kitty Wilks, who had won the Ladys Bronc-Riding Championship a couple of times. They married on July 20,1917, while at a show in Kalispell, Montana, he was 21, while bulldogging in Idaho, Canutts mouth and upper lip were torn by a bulls horn, after stitches, Canutt returned to the competition. It was not until a year later that a surgeon could correct the injury. Canutt won his first world championship at the Olympics of the West in 1917, in between rodeos, he broke horses for the French government in World War I. In 1918, he went to Spokane to enlist in the United States Navy and was stationed in Bremerton, in the fall, he was given a 30-day furlough to defend his rodeo title. He was discharged in spring 1919, at the 1919 Calgary Stampede, he competed in the bucking event and met Pete Knight. He traveled to Los Angeles for a rodeo, and decided to winter in Hollywood and it was here that Tom Mix, who had also started in rodeos, invited him to be in two of his pictures. Mix added to his flashy wardrobe by borrowing two of Canutts two-tone shirts and having his tailor make 40 copies, Canutt got his first taste of stunt work in a fight scene on a serial called Lightning Bryce, he left Hollywood to compete in the 1920 rodeo circuit. The Fort Worth rodeo was nicknamed Yaks show after he won the competition three years in a row from 1921 to 1923

16.
Jack Cardiff
–
Jack Cardiff, OBE, BSC was a British cinematographer, director and photographer. His career spanned the development of cinema, from silent film and he was best known for his influential colour cinematography for directors such as Powell and Pressburger, Huston and Hitchcock. In 2000 he was awarded an OBE and in 2001 he was awarded an Honorary Oscar for his contribution to the cinema, Jack Cardiffs work is reviewed in detail in the documentary film, Cameraman, The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff. Cardiff was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, the son of Florence and John Joseph Cardiff, music hall entertainers. He worked as an actor from an age, both in the music hall and in a number of silent films, My Son, My Son, Billys Rose, The Loves of Mary, Queen of Scots. At 15 he began working as an assistant, clapper boy and production runner for British International Pictures. In 1935, Cardiff graduated to camera operator and occasional cinematographer and he was the first to shoot a film in Britain in Technicolor, Wings of the Morning. When the war began he worked as a cinematographer on public information films and he did a number of films on India where the British wanted to showcase the new capital city of Delhi. Their collaboration continued with Black Narcissus, which won Cardiff an Oscar and a Golden Globe and these films put Cardiffs talents in high demand, and a string of big-budget films followed. In 1995, the British Society of Cinematographers conferred a lifetime achievement award on Cardiff, in the late 1950s Cardiff began to direct, with two modest successes in Intent to Kill and Web of Evidence. However, his 1960 adaptation of D. H. Lawrences novel Sons and Lovers, starring Trevor Howard, Wendy Hiller and Dean Stockwell, was a hit and it earned seven Oscar nominations and Freddie Francis won for Best Black-and-White Cinematography. Cardiff received a Golden Globe Award for Best Director, after concentrating on direction in the 1960s, he returned to cinematography in the 1970s and 1980s, working on mainstream commercial films in the United States. One of the last films Cardiff photographed was at Pinewood Studios in 2004 when he lit veteran actor Sir John Mills in a short entitled Lights 2, the combined age of leading actor and cinematographer was a record 186 years. A feature-length documentary was made about Cardiffs life and career, Cameraman, The Life and it took 17 years to make but wasnt completed or released until after Cardiffs death. It was chosen for the selection of Cannes Classics at the Festival de Cannes in 2010. Cardiff died of old age at 94 on 22 April 2009 and he was survived by his wife and his four sons. Cameraman, The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff was shown as part of the Great Yarmouth Arts Festival 2014 along with some of his photographs, further celebrations to mark his birth date took place in September – particularly at the Time and Tide Museum in Great Yarmouth. Jack Cardiff was the operator and then cinematographer for 73 films, documentaries

17.
John Chambers (make-up artist)
–
John Chambers was an American make-up artist and prosthetic makeup expert in both television and film. He was a recipient of an Academy Honorary Award by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and he is best known for creating the pointy ears of the character Spock on the television series Star Trek, and for his make-up work on the Planet of the Apes film franchise. Chambers was born in Chicago, Illinois, to an Irish-American family and his father Michael emigrated from Newport in Ireland. Chambers trained as a commercial artist and started his career designing jewelry and he also trained under Ben Nye, then head of make-up at 20th Century Fox. In 1953, Chambers joined the NBC television network as a make-up artist for live shows, after working on his first film Around the World in Eighty Days in 1956, he then joined Universal Pictures. Chambers also worked on The Munsters and The Outer Limits TV series, Chambers became known worldwide for his work on the Planet of the Apes film franchise, which began with the eponymous 1968 film. During its production, he held training sessions at the 20th Century Fox studios to mentor the other 78 artists working on the film. He won an honorary Oscar at the 41st Academy Awards in 1969 for his work on film and he was the first motion picture makeup artist to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Chambers worked on the episode of Mission Impossible and created the pointed ears worn by Leonard Nimoys Spock in the original Star Trek television series. Some of his creations, including Cornelius and Dr. Zaius from the Planet of the Apes series, are on display at The Science Fiction Museum in Seattle. Chambers served as president of the Society of Makeup Artists as well, in the late 1970s, Chambers worked as a contractor for the CIA, creating “disguise kits” for CIA personnel stationed in other countries. Some of his work can be seen at the International Spy Museum in Washington D. C, Chambers set up a fake movie and production company as a cover story of a film crew planning to shoot a science fiction film, titled Argo, in Iran. To make the cover believable, Chambers used actor Michael Douglass former office during the filming of The China Syndrome at Sunset Gower Studios. Chambers and Mendez printed fake business cards, held a press party at a nightclub in Los Angeles. Fellow make-up artist Robert Sidell and his wife Andi assisted in the hoax, the rescue effort was ultimately successful, and Chambers was awarded CIAs Intelligence Medal of Merit, but he was required to keep his involvement a secret, until the story was declassified in 1997. In the 2012 Academy Award for Best Picture-winning film Argo, Chambers was portrayed by John Goodman and he retired from the industry in 1982 and lived in a retirement community, the Motion Picture Country Home, in Woodland Hills, California. In 1998, a documentary, A Tribute to John Chambers and that same year, he was named 94th in the list of 100 most influential people in the history of the movies. Chambers was also given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7006 Hollywood Boulevard and he died on August 25,2001 in a California hospital, at age 78

18.
Jackie Chan
–
Chan Kong-sang, SBS, MBE, PMW, known professionally as Jackie Chan, is a Hong Kong martial artist, actor, film director, producer, stuntman, and singer. In his movies, he is known for his fighting style, comic timing, use of improvised weapons, and innovative stunts. He has trained in Kung Fu and Hapkido and he has been acting since the 1960s and has appeared in over 150 films. Chan has received stars on the Hong Kong Avenue of Stars, and he has been referenced in various pop songs, cartoons, and video games. He is a trained vocalist and is also a Cantopop and Mandopop star, having released a number of albums. He is also a notable philanthropist, in 2015, Forbes magazine estimated his net worth to be $350 million. Chan was born on 7 April 1954, in British Hong Kong, as Chan Kong-sang, to Charles and Lee-Lee Chan and his mother or parents nicknamed him Pao-pao Chinese, 炮炮 because the energetic child was always rolling around. His parents worked for the French ambassador in Hong Kong, Chan attended the Nah-Hwa Primary School on Hong Kong Island, where he failed his first year, after which his parents withdrew him from the school. In 1960, his father emigrated to Canberra, Australia, to work as the cook for the American embassy, and Chan was sent to the China Drama Academy. Chan trained rigorously for the decade, excelling in martial arts. He eventually became part of the Seven Little Fortunes, a group made up of the schools best students. Chan became close friends with group members Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao. After entering the industry, Chan along with Sammo Hung got the opportunity to train in hapkido under the grand master Jin Pal Kim. Jackie Chan also trained in other styles of arts such as Karate, Judo, Taekwondo. He began his career by appearing in roles at the age of five as a child actor. At age eight, he appeared with some of his fellow Little Fortunes in the film Big, Chan appeared with Li again the following year, in The Love Eterne and had a small role in King Hus 1966 film Come Drink with Me. In 1971, after an appearance as an extra in another kung fu film, A Touch of Zen, at seventeen, he worked as a stuntman in the Bruce Lee films Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon under the stage name Chan Yuen Lung. He received his first starring role later that year in Little Tiger of Canton that had a release in Hong Kong in 1973

19.
Charlie Chaplin
–
Sir Charles Spencer Charlie Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame during the era of silent film. Chaplin became an icon through his screen persona the Tramp and is considered one of the most important figures in the history of the film industry. His career spanned more than 75 years, from childhood in the Victorian era until a year before his death in 1977, Chaplins childhood in London was one of poverty and hardship. As his father was absent and his mother struggled financially, he was sent to a workhouse twice before the age of nine, when he was 14, his mother was committed to a mental asylum. Chaplin began performing at an age, touring music halls and later working as a stage actor. At 19 he was signed to the prestigious Fred Karno company, Chaplin was scouted for the film industry, and began appearing in 1914 for Keystone Studios. He soon developed the Tramp persona and formed a fan base. Chaplin directed his own films from a stage, and continued to hone his craft as he moved to the Essanay, Mutual. By 1918, he was one of the best known figures in the world, in 1919, Chaplin co-founded the distribution company United Artists, which gave him complete control over his films. His first feature-length was The Kid, followed by A Woman of Paris, The Gold Rush and he refused to move to sound films in the 1930s, instead producing City Lights and Modern Times without dialogue. Chaplin became increasingly political, and his film, The Great Dictator. The 1940s were a decade marked with controversy for Chaplin, and he was accused of communist sympathies, while his involvement in a paternity suit and marriages to much younger women caused scandal. An FBI investigation was opened, and Chaplin was forced to leave the United States and he abandoned the Tramp in his later films, which include Monsieur Verdoux, Limelight, A King in New York, and A Countess from Hong Kong. Chaplin wrote, directed, produced, edited, starred in and he was a perfectionist, and his financial independence enabled him to spend years on the development and production of a picture. His films are characterised by slapstick combined with pathos, typified in the Tramps struggles against adversity, many contain social and political themes, as well as autobiographical elements. In 1972, as part of an appreciation for his work. He continues to be held in regard, with The Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times. Charles Spencer Chaplin was born on 16 April 1889 to Hannah Chaplin, there is no official record of his birth, although Chaplin believed he was born at East Street, Walworth, in South London

20.
Maurice Chevalier
–
Maurice Auguste Chevalier was a French actor, cabaret singer and entertainer. He is perhaps best known for his songs, including Louise, Mimi, Valentine. His trademark attire was a hat, which he always wore on stage with a tuxedo. He made his name as a star of comedy, appearing in public as a singer and dancer at an early age before working in menial jobs as a teenager. In 1909, he became the partner of the biggest female star in France at the time, Fréhel. Although their relationship was brief, she secured him his first major engagement, as a mimic, in 1917, he discovered jazz and ragtime and went to London, where he found new success at the Palace Theatre. After this, he toured the United States, where he met the American composers George Gershwin and Irving Berlin and he developed an interest in acting and had success in Dédé. When talkies arrived, he went to Hollywood in 1928, where he played his first American role in Innocents of Paris, in 1957, he appeared in Love in the Afternoon, which was his first Hollywood film in more than 20 years. In 1958, he starred with Leslie Caron and Louis Jourdan in Gigi, in the early 1960s, he made eight films, including Can-Can in 1960 and Fanny the following year. In 1970, he made his contribution to the film industry where he sang the title song of the Disney film The Aristocats. He died in Paris, on January 1,1972, aged 83, Chevalier was born in Paris, France. His father was a French house painter and his mother, Joséphine van den Bosch, was French of Belgian descent. He worked a number of jobs, an apprentice, electrician, printer. He started in business in 1901. He was singing, unpaid, at a café when a member of the theatre saw him, Chevalier made a name as a mimic and a singer. His act in lAlcazar in Marseille was so successful, he made a triumphant rearrival in Paris, in 1909, he became the partner of the biggest female star in France, Fréhel. However, due to her alcoholism and drug addiction, their liaison ended in 1911, Chevalier then started a relationship with 36-year-old Mistinguett at the Folies Bergère, where he was her 23-year-old dance partner, they eventually played out a public romance. In 1917, Chevalier became a star in le Casino de Paris and played before British soldiers and he discovered jazz and ragtime and started thinking about touring the United States

21.
Gary Cooper
–
Gary Cooper was an American film actor known for his natural, authentic, and understated acting style and screen performances. His career spanned thirty-five years, from 1925 to 1960, and he was a major movie star from the end of the silent film era through the end of the golden age of Classical Hollywood. His screen persona appealed strongly to men and women, and his range of performances included roles in most major movie genres. Coopers ability to project his own personality onto the characters he played contributed to his appearing natural, the screen persona he sustained throughout his career represented the ideal American hero. Cooper began his career as an extra and stunt rider. After establishing himself as a Western hero in his silent films, Cooper became a movie star in 1929 with his first sound picture. In the early 1930s, he expanded his heroic image to include more characters in adventure films and dramas such as A Farewell to Arms. In the postwar years, he portrayed more mature characters at odds with the world in such as The Fountainhead. In his final films, Cooper played non-violent characters searching for redemption in films such as Friendly Persuasion and he married New York debutante Veronica Balfe in 1933, and the couple had one daughter. Their marriage was interrupted by a three-year separation precipitated by Coopers love affair with Patricia Neal, Cooper received the Academy Award for Best Actor for his roles in Sergeant York and High Noon. He also received an Academy Honorary Award for his achievements in 1961. He was one of the top ten film personalities for twenty-three consecutive years, the American Film Institute ranked Cooper eleventh on its list of the twenty five greatest male stars of classic Hollywood cinema. Frank James Cooper was born on May 7,1901, at 730 Eleventh Avenue in Helena, Montana to English immigrants Alice and his father emigrated from Houghton Regis, Bedfordshire and became a prominent lawyer, rancher, and eventually a Montana Supreme Court justice. His mother emigrated from Gillingham, Kent and married Charles in Montana, in 1906, Charles purchased the 600-acre Seven-Bar-Nine cattle ranch about fifty miles north of Helena near the town of Craig on the Missouri River. Frank and his older brother Arthur spent their summers there and learned to ride horses, hunt, in April 1908, the Hauser Dam failed and flooded the Missouri River valley along portions of the Cooper property, but Cooper and his family were able to evacuate in time. Cooper attended Central Grade School in Helena, at Dunstable, Cooper studied Latin and French, and took several courses in English history. While he managed to adapt to the discipline of an English school and learned the requisite social graces, he never adjusted to the class structure. After completing confirmation classes, Cooper was baptized into the Anglican Church on December 3,1911, Coopers mother accompanied her sons back to the United States in August 1912, and Cooper resumed his education at Johnson Grammar School in Helena

22.
Merian C. Cooper
–
Merian Caldwell Cooper was an American aviator, United States Air Force and Polish Air Force officer, adventurer, screenwriter, film director, and producer. Cooper was the founder of the Kościuszko Squadron during the Polish–Soviet War and was a Soviet prisoner of war for a time and he was a notable movie producer, and got his start with film as part of the Explorers Club, traveling the world and documenting adventures. He was a member of the board of directors of Pan American Airways, during his film career, he worked for companies such as Pioneer Pictures, RKO Pictures, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He is also credited as co-inventor of the Cinerama film projection process, Coopers most famous film was the 1933 movie King Kong. He was awarded an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement in 1952, Merian Caldwell Cooper was born in Jacksonville, Florida, to the lawyer John C. Cooper and the former Mary Caldwell. He was the youngest of three children, at age six, Cooper decided that he wanted to be an explorer after hearing stories from the book Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa. He was educated at The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey and graduated in 1911, after graduation, Cooper received a prestigious appointment to the U. S. Naval Academy, but was expelled during his senior year for hell raising and for championing air power. In 1916, Cooper worked for the Minneapolis Daily News as a reporter, in the next few years, he also worked at the Des Moines Register-Leader and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. In 1916, Cooper joined the Georgia National Guard to help chase Pancho Villa in Mexico and he was called home in March 1917. He worked for the El Paso Herald on a 30-day leave of absence, after returning to his service, Cooper was appointed lieutenant, however, he turned down the appointment hoping to participate in combat. Instead, he went to the Military Aeronautics School in Atlanta to learn to fly, Cooper graduated from the school as the top in his class. In October 1917, Cooper went to France with the 201st Squadron and he attended flying school in Issoudun. While flying with his friend, Cooper hit his head and was knocked out during a 200-foot plunge, after the incident, Cooper suffered from shock and had to relearn how to fly. Cooper requested to go to Clermont-Ferrand to be trained as a bomber pilot and he became a pilot on the 20th Aero Squadron. Cooper served as a DH-4 bomber pilot with the United States Army Air Service during World War I, on September 26,1918, his plane was shot down. The plane caught fire, and Cooper spun the plane to suck the flames out, Cooper survived, although he suffered burns, injured his hands, and was presumed dead. German soldiers saw his planes landing and took him to a prisoner reserve hospital. Captain Cooper remained in the Air Service after the war, he helped with Herbert Hoovers American Food Administration that provided aid in Poland and he later became the head of the Poland division

23.
Roger Corman
–
Roger William Corman is an American independent film producer, director, and actor. He has been called The Pope of Pop Cinema and is known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film, much of Cormans work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of low budget cult films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe. In 2009, he was awarded an Honorary Academy Award, Corman mentored and gave a start to many young film directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, Ron Howard, Martin Scorsese and James Cameron. He also helped to launch the careers of actors Peter Fonda, a documentary about Cormans life and career entitled Cormans World, Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel, directed by Alex Stapleton, premiered at the Sundance and Cannes Film Festivals in 2011. The films TV rights were picked up by A&E IndieFilms after a screening at Sundance. Corman was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Anne and William Corman and his younger brother, Eugene Harold Gene Corman, has also produced numerous films, sometimes in collaboration with Roger. Corman and his brother were baptized in their mothers Catholic faith, Corman went to Beverly Hills High School and then to Stanford University to study Industrial Engineering. While at Stanford, Corman enlisted in the V-12 Navy College Training Program, after the end of World War II, Corman returned to Stanford and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering in 1947. While at Stanford University, Roger Corman was initiated in the fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon, in 1948, he worked briefly at U. S. Electrical Motors on Slauson Avenue in Los Angeles, but his career in engineering lasted only four days, he work on Monday and quit on Thursday. More interested in film, Corman found work at 20th Century Fox initially in the mail room and he worked his way up to a story reader. The one property that he liked the most and provided ideas for was filmed as The Gunfighter with Gregory Peck, when Corman received no credit at all he left Fox and decided he would work in film by himself. Under the GI Bill, Corman studied English Literature at Oxford University and he then returned to Los Angeles, beginning his film career in 1953 as a producer and screenwriter, then started directing films in 1955. Corman began to direct films in the mid-1950s, including Swamp Women, in his early period, he produced up to nine movies a year. His fastest film was perhaps The Little Shop of Horrors, which was shot in two days and one night. Supposedly, he had made a bet that he could shoot a feature film in less than three days. Another version of the claims that he had a set rented for a month. In addition to producing and directing films for American International Pictures, in 1959, Corman founded Filmgroup with his brother Gene, a company producing or releasing low-budget black-and-white films as double features for drive-ins and action houses

24.
Lee de Forest
–
Lee de Forest was an American inventor, self-described Father of Radio, and a pioneer in the development of sound-on-film recording used for motion pictures. He had over 180 patents, but also a tumultuous career—he boasted that he made, then lost and he was also involved in several major patent lawsuits, spent a substantial part of his income on legal bills, and was even tried for mail fraud. His most famous invention, in 1906, was the three-element Audion vacuum tube, Lee de Forest was born in 1873 in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the son of Anna Margaret and Henry Swift DeForest. He was a descendant of Jessé de Forest, the leader of a group of Walloon Huguenots who fled Europe in the 17th Century due to religious persecution. De Forests father was a Congregational Church minister who hoped his son would become a pastor. De Forest prepared for college by attending Mount Hermon Boys School in Mount Hermon, after completing his undergraduate studies, in September,1896 de Forest began three years of postgraduate work. However, his experiments had a tendency to blow fuses. Even after being warned to be careful, he managed to douse the lights during an important lecture by Professor Charles Hastings. One drawback to Marconis approach was his use of a coherer as a receiver, which, while providing for permanent records, was slow, insensitive. After making unsuccessful inquiries about employment with Nikola Tesla and Marconi and his first job after leaving Yale was with the Western Electric Companys telephone lab in Chicago, Illinois. While there he developed his first receiver, which was based on findings by two German scientists, Drs. A. Neugschwender and Emil Aschkinass and their original design consisted of a mirror in which a narrow, moistened slit had been cut through the silvered back. Attaching a battery and telephone receiver, they could hear sound changes in response to radio signal impulses, De Forest, along with Ed Smythe, a co-worker who provided financial and technical help, developed variations they called responders. With radio research his main priority, de Forest next took a teaching position at the Lewis Institute. By 1900, using a transmitter and his responder receiver. Professor Clarence Freeman of the Armour Institute became interested in de Forests work, Marconi had already made arrangements to provide reports for the Associated Press, which he had successfully done for the 1899 contest. De Forest contracted to do the same for the smaller Publishers Press Association, the race effort turned out to be an almost total failure. The Freeman transmitter broke down — in a fit of rage, none of these companies had effective tuning for their transmitters, so only one could transmit at a time without causing mutual interference. De Forest ruefully noted that under conditions the only successful wireless communication was done by visual semaphore wig-wag flags

25.
Cecil B. DeMille
–
Cecil Blount DeMille was an American filmmaker. Between 1913 and 1956, he made a total of 70 features and he is acknowledged as a founding father of the cinema of the United States and the most commercially successful producer-director in film history. His films were distinguished by their scale and by his cinematic showmanship. He made silent films of every genre, social dramas, comedies, Westerns, farces, morality plays, DeMille began his career as a stage actor in 1900. He later moved to writing and directing stage productions, some with Jesse Lasky, DeMilles first film, The Squaw Man, was also the first feature film shot in Hollywood. Its interracial love story made it a hit and it put Hollywood on the map. The continued success of his productions led to the founding of Paramount Pictures with Lasky and his first biblical epic, The Ten Commandments, was both a critical and financial success, it held the Paramount revenue record for twenty-five years. In 1927 he directed The King of Kings, a biography of Jesus of Nazareth, the Sign of the Cross was the first sound film to integrate all aspects of cinematic technique. Cleopatra was his first film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, after more than thirty years in film production, DeMille reached the pinnacle of his career with Samson and Delilah, a biblical epic which did an all-time record business. Along with biblical and historical narratives, he directed films oriented toward neo-naturalism. He went on to receive his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director for his circus drama The Greatest Show on Earth and his last and most famous film, The Ten Commandments, is currently the sixth-highest-grossing film of all time, adjusted for inflation. He was also the first recipient of the Golden Globe Cecil B, DeMille Award, which was later named in his honor. There are several variants of DeMilles surname and his familys Dutch surname was originally spelled de Mil and then became de Mille. As an adult, he adopted the spelling DeMille for professional purposes, the family name de Mille was used by his children Cecilia, John, Richard, and Katherine. DeMilles brother William and his daughters, Margaret and Agnes, as well as DeMilles granddaughter, Cecilia de Mille Presley, Cecil Blount DeMille was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, while his parents were vacationing there, and grew up in Washington, North Carolina. His father, Henry Churchill de Mille, was a North Carolina-born dramatist and lay reader in the Episcopal Church and his mother was Matilda Beatrice DeMille, whose parents were both of German Jewish heritage. She emigrated from England with her parents in 1871 when she was 18, Beatrice grew up in a middle-class English household. DeMilles mother was related to British politician Herbert Louis Samuel, DeMilles parents met as members of a music and literary society in New York

26.
Walt Disney
–
Walter Elias Walt Disney was an American entrepreneur, animator, voice actor and film producer. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons, as a film producer, Disney holds the record for most Academy Awards earned by an individual, having won 22 Oscars from 59 nominations. He was presented with two Golden Globe Special Achievement Awards and an Emmy Award, among other honors, several of his films are included in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. Born in Chicago in 1901, Disney developed an early interest in drawing and he took art classes as a boy and got a job as a commercial illustrator at the age of 18. He moved to California in the early 1920s and set up the Disney Brothers Studio with his brother Roy, with Ub Iwerks, Walt developed the character Mickey Mouse in 1928, his first highly popular success, he also provided the voice for his creation in the early years. As the studio grew, Disney became more adventurous, introducing synchronized sound, full-color three-strip Technicolor, feature-length cartoons, the results, seen in features such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Pinocchio, Dumbo and Bambi, furthered the development of animated film. New animated and live-action films followed after World War II, including the critically successful Cinderella and Mary Poppins, in the 1950s, Disney expanded into the amusement park industry, and in 1955 he opened Disneyland. In 1965, he began development of theme park, Disney World, the heart of which was to be a new type of city. Disney was a smoker throughout his life, and died of lung cancer in December 1966 before either the park or the EPCOT project were completed. Disney was a shy, self-deprecating and insecure man in private and he had high standards and high expectations of those with whom he worked. Although there have been accusations that he was racist or anti-semitic and his reputation changed in the years after his death, from a purveyor of homely patriotic values to a representative of American imperialism. Nevertheless, Disney is considered an icon, particularly in the United States. Walt Disney was born on December 5,1901, at 1249 Tripp Avenue and he was the fourth son of Elias Disney‍—‌born in the Province of Canada, to Irish parents‍—‌and Flora, an American of German and English descent. Aside from Disney, Elias and Calls sons were Herbert, Raymond and Roy, in 1906, when Disney was four, the family moved to a farm in Marceline, Missouri, where his uncle Robert had just purchased land. In Marceline, Disney developed his interest in drawing when he was paid to draw the horse of a neighborhood doctor. Elias was a subscriber to the Appeal to Reason newspaper, Disney also began to develop an ability to work with watercolors and crayons. He lived near the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway line and he and his younger sister Ruth started school at the same time at the Park School in Marceline in late 1909. In 1911, the Disneys moved to Kansas City, Missouri, before long, he was spending more time at the Pfeiffers house than at home

27.
Stanley Donen
–
Stanley Donen is an American film director and choreographer whose most celebrated works are Singin in the Rain and On the Town, both of which he co-directed with actor and dancer Gene Kelly. His other noteworthy films include Royal Wedding, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Funny Face, Indiscreet, Charade, and Two for the Road. He received an Honorary Academy Award in 1998 for his body of work and he was hailed by film critic David Quinlan as the King of the Hollywood musicals. Donen married five times and had three children and his current long term partner is film director and comedian Elaine May. He began his career in the line on Broadway for director George Abbott. In 1943 he went to Hollywood and worked as a choreographer before he and he then worked as a contract director for MGM under producer Arthur Freed producing hit films amid critical acclaim, both as a solo director and with Kelly. In 1952 Donen and Kelly co-directed the musical Singin in the Rain, Donens relationship with Kelly deteriorated in 1955 during their final collaboration on Its Always Fair Weather. He then broke his contract with MGM to become an independent producer in 1957, as musicals began to lose public appeal, Donen switched to comedies. He continued to make hit films until the late 1960s, after which his career slowed down and he briefly returned to the stage as a director in the 1990s and again in 2002. Donen is credited with transitioning Hollywood musical films from realistic backstage dramas to an integrated art form in which the songs were a natural continuation of the story. Donen and Kellys films created a cinematic form and included dances that could only be achieved in the film medium. Donen stated that what he was doing was a continuation from the Astaire – Rogers musicals. Which in turn came from René Clair and from Lubitsch, what we did was not geared towards realism but towards the unreal. Film critic Jean-Pierre Coursodon has said that Donens contribution to the evolution of the Hollywood musical outshines anybody elses and he is the last surviving notable director of Hollywoods Golden Age. Stanley Donen was born in Columbia, South Carolina to Mordecai Moses Donen, a manager, and Helen. His younger sister Carla Donen Davis was born in August 1937, although born to Jewish parents, he became an atheist in his youth. Donen described his childhood as lonely and unhappy as one of the few Jews in Columbia, to help cope with his isolation, he spent much of his youth in local movie theaters and was especially fond of Westerns, comedies and thrillers. The film that had the strongest impact on him was the 1933 Fred Astaire, Donen said that he must have seen the picture thirty or forty times

28.
Kirk Douglas
–
Kirk Douglas is an American actor, producer, director, and author. He is one of the last living people of the film industrys Golden Age, after an impoverished childhood with immigrant parents and six sisters, he had his film debut in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers with Barbara Stanwyck. Douglas soon developed into a leading box-office star throughout the 1950s and 1960s, known for dramas, including westerns. During a 64-year acting career, he has appeared in more than 90 movies, other early films include Young Man with a Horn, playing opposite Lauren Bacall and Doris Day, Ace in the Hole opposite Jan Sterling, and Detective Story. He received a second Oscar nomination for his role in The Bad and the Beautiful, opposite Lana Turner. In 1955, he established Bryna Productions, which began producing films as varied as Paths of Glory, in those two films, he starred and collaborated with the then relatively unknown director, Stanley Kubrick. Douglas helped break the Hollywood blacklist by having Dalton Trumbo write Spartacus with an official on-screen credit and he produced and starred in Lonely Are the Brave, considered a cult classic, and Seven Days in May, opposite Burt Lancaster, with whom he made seven films. In 1963, he starred in the Broadway play One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, a story he purchased, which he gave to his son Michael Douglas. As an actor and philanthropist, Douglas has received three Academy Award nominations, an Oscar for Lifetime Achievement, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, as an author, he has written ten novels and memoirs. Currently, he is No.17 on the American Film Institutes list of the greatest male screen legends of classic Hollywood cinema, after barely surviving a helicopter crash in 1991 and then suffering a stroke in 1996, he has focused on renewing his spiritual and religious life. He lives with his wife, Anne, a producer. He turned 100 on December 9,2016, Douglas was born Issur Danielovitch in Amsterdam, New York, the son of Bryna Bertha and Herschel Harry Danielovitch. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Chavusy, Mogilev Region, in the Russian Empire, and his fathers brother, who emigrated earlier, used the surname Demsky, which Douglass family adopted in the United States. Douglas grew up as Izzy Demsky and legally changed his name to Kirk Douglas before entering the United States Navy during World War II. Even on Eagle Street, in the poorest section of town, where all the families were struggling, and I was the ragmans son. Growing up, Douglas sold snacks to mill workers to earn enough to buy milk, later, he delivered newspapers and during his youth worked at more than forty different jobs before getting a job acting. He found living in a family with six sisters to be stifling, in a sense, it lit a fire under me. In high school, after acting in plays, he knew he wanted to become a professional actor

29.
Blake Edwards
–
Blake Edwards was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Edwards began his career in the 1940s as an actor, but he began writing screenplays and radio scripts before turning to producing and directing in television. His best-known films include Breakfast at Tiffanys, Days of Wine and Roses,10, Victor/Victoria, often thought of as primarily a director of comedies, he also directed several drama, musical, and detective films. Late in his career, he transitioned to writing, producing, in 2004, he received an Honorary Academy Award in recognition of his writing, directing, and producing an extraordinary body of work for the screen. Born William Blake Crump in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he was the son of Donald and his father reportedly left the family before he was born. His mother married again, to Jack McEdwards, who became his stepfather, McEdwards was the son of J. Gordon Edwards, a director of silent movies, and in 1925, he moved the family to Los Angeles and became a film production manager. In an interview with the Village Voice in 1971, Blake Edwards said that he had felt alienated, estranged from my own father. After attending grammar and high school in Los Angeles, Blake began taking jobs as an actor during World War II, Edwards describes this period, I worked with the best directors – Ford, Wyler, Preminger – and learned a lot from them. But I wasnt a very cooperative actor, I was a spunky, smart-assed kid. Maybe even then I was indicating that I wanted to give, not take, Edwards served in the United States Coast Guard during World War II, where he suffered a severe back injury, which left him in pain for years afterwards. Edwards debut as a director came in 1952 on the television program Four Star Playhouse, Edwardss hard-boiled private detective scripts for Richard Diamond, Private Detective became NBCs answer to Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe, reflecting Edwardss unique humor. Edwards also created, wrote, and directed the 1959 TV series Peter Gunn, in the same year, Edwards produced, with Mancinis musical theme, Mr. Lucky, an adventure series on CBS starring John Vivyan and Ross Martin. Mancinis association with Edwards continued in his work, significantly contributing to their success. Operation Petticoat Operation Petticoat was Edwardss first big-budget movie as a director, the film, which starred Tony Curtis and Cary Grant, became the greatest box-office success of the decade for Universal, and made Edwards a recognized director. Breakfast at Tiffanys Breakfast at Tiffanys, based on the novel by Truman Capote, is credited with establishing him as a figure with many critics. Andrew Sarris called it the surprise of 1961, and it became a romantic touchstone for college students in the early 1960s. Days of Wine and Roses Days of Wine And Roses, a psychological film about the effects of alcoholism on a previously happy marriage, starred Jack Lemmon. It has been described as perhaps the most unsparing tract against drink that Hollywood has yet produced, the film gave another major boost to Edwardss reputation as an important director

30.
Douglas Fairbanks
–
Douglas Fairbanks was an American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. He was best known for his roles in silent films such as The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood. Fairbanks was a member of United Artists. Fairbanks was also a member of The Motion Picture Academy. With his marriage to Mary Pickford in 1920, the couple became Hollywood royalty and Fairbanks was referred to as The King of Hollywood, a nickname later passed on to actor Clark Gable. Though widely considered as one of the biggest stars in Hollywood during the 1910s and 1920s and his final film was The Private Life of Don Juan. Fairbanks was born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman in Denver, Colorado and he had two half-brothers, John Fairbanks, Jr. and Norris Wilcox, and a full brother, Robert Payne Ullman. Douglas Fairbankss father, Hezekiah Charles Ullman was born in Berrysburg, Pennsylvania and he was the fourth child in a Jewish family consisting of six sons and four daughters. Charless parents, Lazarus Ullman and Lydia Abrahams, had immigrated to the U. S. in 1830 from Baden, when he was 17, Charles started a small publishing business in Philadelphia. Two years later, he left for New York to study law and he was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1856 and began building a substantial practice. At the onset of the Civil War, Charles joined the Union forces and he engaged in several battles, was wounded, and later became a captain in the 5th Pennsylvania Reserves. Charles left the service in 1864 and returned to his law practice, law Association, a forerunner of the American Bar Association. Charles met Ella Adelaide Marsh, after she married his friend and client John Fairbanks, the Fairbankses had a son, John, and shortly thereafter John Senior died of tuberculosis. Ella, born into a wealthy southern Catholic family, was overprotected, consequently, she was swindled out of her fortune by her husbands partners. Even the efforts of Charles Ullman, acting on her behalf, distraught and lonely, she met and married a courtly Georgian, Edward Wilcox, who turned out to be an alcoholic. After they had a son, Norris, she divorced Wilcox with Charles acting as her own lawyer in the suit, the pretty southern belle soon became romantically involved with Charles and agreed to move to Denver with him to pursue mining investments. They arrived in Denver in 1881 with her son, John and they were married and in 1882 had a child, Robert and then a second son, Douglas, a year later. Charles purchased several mining interests in the Rocky Mountains, and he re-established his law practice, Charles Ullman, after hearing of his wifes philandering, abandoned the family when Douglas was five years old

31.
Federico Fellini
–
Federico Fellini was an Italian film director and screenwriter. Known for his style that blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. His films have ranked, in such as Cahiers du cinéma and Sight & Sound. Sight & Sound lists his 1963 film 8½ as the 10th greatest film of all time, in 1993, he was awarded an honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement at the 65th Annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles. Fellini was born on 20 January 1920, to parents in Rimini. His father, Urbano Fellini, born to a family of Romagnol peasants and small landholders from Gambettola and his mother, Ida Barbiani, came from a bourgeiois Catholic family of Roman merchants. Despite her familys vehement disapproval, she had eloped with Urbano in 1917 to live at his parents home in Gambettola, a civil marriage followed in 1918 with the religious ceremony held at Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome a year later. The couple settled in Rimini where Urbano became a traveling salesman, Fellini had two siblings, Riccardo, a documentary director for RAI Television, and Maria Maddalena. In 1924, Fellini started primary school in a run by the nuns of San Vincenzo in Rimini. In 1926, he discovered the world of Grand Guignol, the circus with Pierino the Clown, Guido Brignone’s Maciste all’Inferno, the first film he saw, would mark him in ways linked to Dante and the cinema throughout his entire career. Enrolled at the Ginnasio Giulio Cesare in 1929, he made friends with Luigi ‘Titta’ Benzi, in Mussolini’s Italy, Fellini and Riccardo became members of the Avanguardista, the compulsory Fascist youth group for males. He visited Rome with his parents for the first time in 1933, the sea creature found on the beach at the end of La Dolce Vita has its basis in a giant fish marooned on a Rimini beach during a storm in 1934. To say that my films are autobiographical is an overly facile liquidation and it seems to me that I have invented almost everything, childhood, character, nostalgias, dreams, memories, for the pleasure of being able to recount them. In 1937, Fellini opened Febo, a shop in Rimini. with the painter Demos Bonini. His first humorous article appeared in the Postcards to Our Readers section of Milan’s Domenica del Corriere, deciding on a career as a caricaturist and gag writer, Fellini travelled to Florence in 1938, where he published his first cartoon in the weekly 420. According to a biographer, Fellini found school exasperating and, in one year, had 67 absences, failing his military culture exam, he graduated from high school in July 1938 after doubling the exam. In September 1939, he enrolled in law school at the University of Rome to please his parents, biographer Hollis Alpert reports that there is no record of his ever having attended a class. Installed in a family pensione, he met lifelong friend

32.
Henry Fonda
–
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor with a career spanning more than five decades. Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor and he also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins. Throughout six decades in Hollywood, Fonda cultivated a strong, appealing screen image in such classics as The Ox-Bow Incident, Fonda was the patriarch of a family of famous actors, including daughter Jane Fonda, son Peter Fonda, granddaughter Bridget Fonda, and grandson Troy Garity. His family and close friends called him Hank, in 1999, he was named the sixth-Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute. Fondas ancestors from Genoa, Italy, migrated to the Netherlands in the 15th century, in 1642, a branch of the Fonda family immigrated to the Dutch colony of New Netherland on the East Coast of North America. They were among the first Dutch population to settle in what is now upstate New York, establishing the town of Fonda, by 1888, many of their descendants had relocated to Nebraska. Henry Fonda was born in Grand Island, Nebraska, to advertising-printing jobber William Brace Fonda, Fonda was brought up as a Christian Scientist, though he was baptized an Episcopalian at St. Stephens Episcopal Church in Grand Island. He said, My whole damn family was nice and they were a close family and highly supportive, especially in health matters, as they avoided doctors due to their religion. Despite having a background, he later became an agnostic. Fonda was a bashful, short boy who tended to avoid girls, except his sisters, and was a skater, swimmer. He worked part-time in his fathers print plant and imagined a career as a journalist. Later, he worked after school for the phone company, Fonda was active in the Boy Scouts of America, Teichmann reports that he reached the rank of Eagle Scout. When he was about 14, his father took him to observe the lynching of a black man accused of rape. This enraged the young Fonda and he kept a keen awareness of prejudice for the rest of his life, by his senior year in high school, Fonda had grown to more than six feet tall, but remained shy. He attended the University of Minnesota, where he majored in journalism and he took a job with the Retail Credit Company. He was fascinated by the stage, learning everything from set construction to stage production, Fonda decided to quit his job and go East in 1928 to seek his fortune. He arrived on Cape Cod and played a role at the Cape Playhouse in Dennis. A friend took him to Falmouth, MA where he joined and quickly became a member of the University Players

33.
Y. Frank Freeman
–
Young Frank Freeman was an American film company executive for Paramount Pictures. Freeman graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1910, in addition to his work with Paramount, he also worked in the fields of banking, higher education, and athletics. He was the first winner of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, archived from the original on June 21,2010. Franh Freeman Dies at 78, Retired Paramount Executive

34.
Greta Garbo
–
Greta Garbo, was a Swedish-born American film actress during the 1920s and 1930s. Garbo was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress and received an Academy Honorary Award in 1954 for her luminous, Garbo launched her career with a secondary role in the 1924 Swedish film The Saga of Gosta Berling. Her performance caught the attention of Louis B, Mayer, chief executive of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, who brought her to Hollywood in 1925. She immediately stirred interest with her first silent film, Torrent, released in 1926, a later, her performance in Flesh. Garbos first talking film was Anna Christie, MGM marketers enticed the public with the catch-phrase Garbo talks. That same year she starred in Romance, for her performances in these films she received the first of three Academy Award nominations for Best Actress. In 1932, her popularity allowed her to dictate the terms of her contract and her success continued in films such as Mata Hari and Grand Hotel. Many critics and film historians consider her performance as the doomed courtesan Marguerite Gautier in Camille to be her finest, the role gained her a second Academy Award nomination. Garbos career soon declined, however, and she was one of the many stars labeled Box Office Poison in 1938, from then on, Garbo declined all opportunities to return to the screen. Shunning publicity, she began a life, and neither married nor had children. Greta Lovisa Gustafsson was born in Södermalm, Stockholm, Sweden and she was the third and youngest child of Anna Lovisa —a housewife who later worked at a jam factory—and Karl Alfred Gustafsson, a laborer. Garbo had a brother, Sven Alfred, and an older sister. Her parents met in Stockholm where her father visited from Frinnaryd and he moved to Stockholm to become independent and worked in various odd jobs—street cleaner, grocer, factory worker and butchers assistant. He married Anna, who had moved from Högsby. The Gustafssons were impoverished and lived in a three-bedroom cold-water flat at Blekingegatan No.32 and they brought up their three children in a working class district regarded as the citys slum. Garbo would later recall, It was eternally grey—those long winters nights and my father would be sitting in a corner, scribbling figures on a newspaper. On the other side of the room my mother is repairing ragged old clothes and we children would be talking in very low voices, or just sitting silently. We were filled with anxiety, as if there were danger in the air, such evenings are unforgettable for a sensitive girl

35.
William Garity
–
William E. Bill Garity was an American inventor and technician who attended the Pratt Institute before going to work for Lee De Forest around 1921. Garity worked with DeForest on the Phonofilm sound-on-film system until 1927, Garity is best known for the his employment at Walt Disney Studios, which used the Cinephone system in the late 20s and early 30s. In 1937, also at the Disney Studios, Garity developed the multiplane camera, ub Iwerks, having left Disney to work at his own studio, developed an unrelated multiplane camera, during this same time period. In 1940, Garity developed Fantasound, an early stereophonic surround sound system for Disneys Fantasia, after leaving the Disney studio, Garity later became vice president and production manager for Walter Lantz Productions. He was inducted in the Disney Legends program in 1999, William Garity at Disney Legends William Garity at the Internet Movie Database